Press Release

“An imaginative survey spanning the whole of Gipps career, concentrating on her chamber music for wind right through to one of her last works.”

“As you listen to this disc, Gipps music takes on a particular character, an exploration of themes that arise from English music of the 1930s and 1940s, full of imagination and with interesting harmonic quirks without ever breaking the rules entirely. This is finely crafted music, and it sounds as if it is well written and enjoyable to play. Many of the larger scale works I would be delighted to come across in concert programmes and we have to hope that this disc will encourage ensembles to range a little more widely in their programming.”

Thanks to Robert Hugill at www.planethugill.com/2022/05/winds-of-change-survey-of-ruth-gipps

“Winds of Change blows a chronological path through the conservative but feisty British composer’s chamber music featuring wind instruments”

“[Her] typically expressive and fibrous sonata for alto trombone or horn from 1995 is one of many works here featuring the golden-toned horn of Ben Goldscheider, the best champion yet of her quicksilver Horn Concerto.

“… skilfully and tightly written music, and plenty of virtuosity among the players.”

8th January 2022 – PizzaExpress Jazz Club, Soho, London 1pm
Featuring Ivo Neame on piano, Dave Whitford on bass, James Maddren on drums
& the Tear String Quartet

26th January 2022 – Newhampton Arts Centre, Wolverhampton
27th January 2022 – Albany Club, Coventry
28th January 2022 – 1000 Trades, Birmingham
29th January 2022 – Bishop’s Castle Town Hall, Shropshire
30th January 2022 – Ashburton Arts Centre, Teignbridge

Featuring Alcyona Mick on piano, Phil Donkin on bass, James Maddren on drums & the Tear String Quartet

“The original compositions and arrangements are elegantly poised and, with a sound suspended somewhere between flugelhorn and trombone, Rattigan’s playing is ravishing.”
**** BBC Music Magazine

French horn player Jim Rattigan will be touring his critically acclaimed album When in the New Year. The eloquently inventive composer/arranger/bandleader brings together some of UK’s finest players from both jazz and classical music – Ivo Neame and Alcyona Mick on piano, Dave Whitford and Phil Donklin on bass, James Maddren on drums and the Tear String Quartet (Julian Tear – violin, Alison Gordon – violin, Nic Barr – viola, and Nic Cooper – cello).

“Having had a career in classical music and now playing jazz, I thought that I would write some music that would combine the two worlds,” explains Rattigan. “This is not crossover music but a juxtaposition – the two styles working side by side. I worked with Julian Tear for many years in the Academy of St Martin’s chamber orchestra and asked him to record the music with his quartet. The quartet becomes a quintet when I call on the double bass to play ‘arco’ and the French horn is a bridge between to two genres.”

Most of the ten original compositions on the album were written five years ago. “They seemed a little sad and reflective at the time so I put them in a folder and forgot about them,” says Rattigan. “The irony is that the title When could be applied to the times we’re living in now.”

BBC Music Magazine January 2021 review When

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Jazzwise Dec 2020Jan 2021 review When

All rights acknowledged www.hifinews.com

Jim Rattigan – Photo by Alessandro Tear

One of the UK’s leading French horn players, Jim Rattigan is widely recognised as a pioneer of the jazz French horn and has performed with many globally renowned artists including, Michael Brecker, Bill Frisell, Carla Bley, Charlie Haden, Paul McCartney, George Michael and Adele.

He returns with a new album from his latest album When (Three Worlds Records) which is released on 4 December and features a stellar cast of UK musicians including pianist Nikki Iles, bassist Michael Janisch and drummer James Maddren alongside The Tear Quartet string ensemble of Julian Tear (violin), Alison Gordon (violin), Nic Barr (viola), and Nic Cooper (cello).

Commenting on the music Rattigan says: “Having had a career in classical music and now playing jazz, I thought that I would write some music that would combine the two worlds,” explains Rattigan. “This is not crossover music but a juxtaposition – the two styles working side by side. I worked with Julian Tear for many years in the Academy of St Martin’s chamber orchestra and asked him to record the music with his quartet. The quartet becomes a quintet when I call on the double bass to play ‘arco’ and the French horn is a bridge between to two genres.”

Please visit Jazzwise for the sample video

Source: Jazzwise

“The Freedom of Movement” represents another impressive offering from Pavillon. Rattigan’s compositions and arrangements are rich, colourful and inventive and the playing, by a hand picked ensemble, is exceptional throughout. It’s a recording that wears its undoubted sophistication lightly, and which injects a little welcome humour at appropriate moments. Credit is also due to the production and engineering team of Rattigan, Peter Beckman and Alex Bonney for the warmth and quality of the mix.

Once again Rattigan makes the French horn a thoroughly convincing jazz solo instrument and “The Freedom of Movement” is 100% a jazz record, and an excellent one at that. In no way is this some kind of tepid jazz/classical crossover. The presence of such an all star jazz line up immediately dispels that idea.

Ian Mann

Thanks to Ian Mann at The Jazz Mann May 2020

Jim Rattigan’s Pavillon (Eastside Jazz Club, Royal Birmingham Conservatoire, 7 November 2019. Review and photos by John Watson).

What a wonderful glow there is in the sound of the French horn. But it takes real courage to specialise in the instrument, for the horn is a beautiful but awesomely temperamental beast to master, ever ready to crack and send your notes splitting in all directions like shattered glass.

Jim Rattigan at Eastside Jazz Club (Photo © John Watson/jazzcamera.co.uk)

But Jim Rattigan is not only a master of the instrument, with a wealth of classical and studio experience, he has achieved the even greater distinction of becoming a fluent improviser in the jazz world. And he is an extraordinarily gifted composer and arranger too. He is currently on a UK tour with his large ensemble Pavillon, and their concert at the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire’s Eastside Jazz Club was a triumph. (The title of the group, by the way, comes from the French word for the instrument’s bell.)

The inclusion of the French horn in jazz groups, though rare, goes back a long way: starting with the Claude Thornhill Orchestra and also the work of Julius Watkins in the Ernie Fields Band in the early 1940s; then the playing of Willie Ruff with Lionel Hampton; and in game-changing style the writing of Gil Evans for the classic Birth Of The Cool recordings by the Miles Davis Nonet. Composer Gunther Schuller – who was a horn player on some of those nonet recordings – further developed the use of the instrument in his own “third stream” creations. In later years, Mike Gibbs used the horn in some of his orchestra line-ups, but the instrument has largely remained a jazz rarity.

Rattigan’s work puts the French horn firmly back on the jazz map.

With a 12-strong line-up including trumpeters Robbie Robson and Steve Fishwick, saxophonists Martin Speake and James Allsopp, pianist Hans Koller and drummer Martin France, Pavillon boasts superb sololists as well as richly-textured ensembles and imaginative compositions.

Pavillon in Birmingham (Photo © John Watson/jazzcamera.co.uk)

The tour celebrates the release of the new Pavillon CD The Freedom Of Movement (Three Worlds Records), with witty tune titles including See You Suddenly, Crout’n Confusion, and Oh Yeah, Great, Thanks. This last piece was inspired, Rattigan told the audience, by the thought of a younger generation inheriting a parched planet spoiled by environmental chaos. There could hardly be a more serious subject, but the title Oh Yeah, Great, Thanks, always seems to make people laugh, said Jim. Well, that’s irony for you.

Other inspired pieces from the new album, and the earlier release Strong Tea (Pavillon Records), included Sweet Tamarind – with a triple-time beat rushing headlong into a fast 4/4 – and Horn Call, with the ensemble on a thrilling musical knife-edge between control and chaos.

We really must hear much more of this band in the years to come.

Pavillon’s current UK tour continues on 22 November at the Bear Club, Luton, and concludes on 17 January 2020 at Fleece Jazz, Stoke-by-Nayland, Colchester.

All rights acknowledged London Jazz News